Sunday January 26, 2014

We were on the road early, as it was going to be another long day.  The first 25 ks or so were into a headwind – right from the start Ralf and I took it in turns to be at the front.  Even so by the time we got to Rakia and the giant salmon, I was getting tired and was looking at alternative places to stop for the night, maybe even stopping at 60 ks.

The road again was flat and boring.  The Rakia Gorge bridge is the longest bridge on Highway 1 and it is 1.6kms long with no shoulder.  My little legs were pumping trying to stay ahead of the traffic.

After Rakia, the good people of Canterbury Council decided to plant some trees which created the perfect wind break.  Our speed picked up and we arrived in Christchurch at 2:30 pm.  We found the InterCity bus terminal, which due to the earthquake was working out of a construction trailer and discovered there was a bus that left for Picton this afternoon.  We decided to take it and we will be in Picton tonight.  We will be able to get the earlier ferry to Wellington and get a few miles outside of Wellington tomorrow afternoon to the first campsite at Paraparaumu.

It was very interesting taking the bus up to Picton from Christchurch.  It had taken us 5 days to cycle from Picton to Christchurch, it took the bus 5 hours.  As we crossed the same terrain we realized that we had done some serious hills on the way down.  Crossing the Hunderlees from the opposite direction – these were big hills whichever way you came at them.  That was a great accomplishment for us.